[1][2] Originally a death metal band, Therion adjusted its musical style by adding orchestral elements, including choirs, classical musicians, and even a full orchestra at their concert performances.

In 1990, the band worked with House of Kicks, a local record store, to print and release the Time Shall Tell demo on 12 inch vinyl.

Prior to the recording sessions, Gustafsson left the band to return to the United States, so Therion continued as a trio with Hansson, Forss and Johnsson, the last of whom covered the bass.

For the Central European gigs, Johnsson brought in drummer Piotr Wawrzeniuk from his other band Carbonized, bassist Andreas Wahl, and Magnus Barthelsson who was an old friend from school.

[5] Jason Ankeny of Allmusic noted that the album "was almost universally acclaimed as the apex of Therion's career to date, fully realizing Johnsson's taste for elaborate, operatic grandeur".

[5] In 1997, Therion released A'arab Zaraq - Lucid Dreaming, which contained unreleased songs from Theli, some covers, and Johnsson's soundtrack that he produced for a short art movie called The Golden Embrace.

Vovin was recorded at Woodhouse Studios; it involved a real string orchestra for the first time, and a "hand picked opera choir" which included Austrian singer Martina Hornbacher, and British vocalist Sarah Jezebel Deva.

It included the cover songs of "Crying Days" (Scorpions) and "Summer Night City" (ABBA), of which, Piotr Wawrzeniuk provided vocals.

Afterwards, Karppinen left the band to focus as a sound engineer for Modern Art, but brought in replacement drummer Richard Evensand.

After the Secret of the Runes tour, the band had amassed 55 unreleased songs which included the ones Johnsson had shelved as well as contributions from the Niemann brothers.

Recording one after the other, promoting, and touring each one separately would have taken several years and would have been a bad idea; and being so productive, we would have had another 55 songs waiting when we finally came to the end of it."

[5] The band toured Lemuria / Sirius B over two years and 106 shows, with its final performance at the ProgPower Festival in Cheltenham, UK on 21 March 2006.

[15] Gothic Kabbalah was released on 12 January 2007, and was followed with a tour through Europe, North and South America with Grave Digger and with support act Sabaton.

Some songs were accompanied by keyboardist Ferdy Doernberg and a belly dancer on stage, and some of the shows featured also the ex-singers Piotr Wawrzeniuk and Mats Levén.

[note 4][citation needed] In March 2011, Gothic Kabbalah singer Katarina Lilja left the band for a second time to "re-join the boring civil world and not be a cool rock star anymore".

[citation needed] Thomas Vikström's daughter, Linnéa, provided supporting vocals for the band since the Bloodstock Open Air festival in 2011.

Therion performed at Hellfest Summer Open Air, ProgPower USA,[21] and the 2012 cruise liner based festival 70000 Tons of Metal.

[26][27] The album is considered by Johnsson to be an "art project", which includes not only the music, but also special inlay graphics and video clips [28] - in 2015 partly released on a limited edition DVD called Garden Of Evil.

[30] In April 2013 this statement was reconsidered by Johnsson itself, and the Rock Opera Unveiled Tour was scheduled for December 2013 with 15 European gigs, to test the fans' acceptance of the new material.

The main framework of these shows included excerpts from the future rock opera, and the entire Vovin album due to its 15th anniversary.

[31] In 2014 the Rock Opera unveiled tour has continued with a Latin American leg, which has also meant – "due to family- and work-related reasons" – the last live performances of Lori Lewis.

[33] However, Sandra as a dramatic soprano did not suit for every song, so she was replaced first by coloratura Isa García Navas,[34] and later Chiara Malvestiti to sing in the shows.

In 2015 Johnsson worked on another side project, called Luciferian Light Orchestra, which features songs in the '70s occult rock style.

An eponymous album was also released in that year, accompanied by on-stage appearances as support of Therion's 2015 Latin American and 2016 European tours, featuring Vidal and Påhlsson (both of them masked) on guitar.

[35] For the 2017 live gigs the former Amon Amarth member Fredrik Andersson filled in, then on 21 November 2017 Sami Karppinen officially re-joined.

[36] On 26 January, Johnsson revealed he had been suffering from intense pain in the neck and shoulders, and he was diagnosed with two spinal disc herniations (allegedly resulting from years of headbanging), and he was at risk of losing the ability to perform live.

By 8 April, Johnsson announced he had been able to avoid surgery as his condition had improved through physiotherapy,[38] and the band would resume performing at festivals by August.

[39] Johnsson also arranged the orchestration of Sabaton's stage show with symphonic orchestra, performed on 13 July 2017 at the Masters Of Rock festival in Vizovice, Czech Republic.

The 2022 festival shows of the band featured again Johan Koleberg on drums, as Sami Karppinen took over the duties on Opeth's concerts after the leaving of Martin Axenrot.

As Chiara Malvestiti became unable to stand on stage due to her pregnancy and childbirth the year before, Lori Lewis returned as a touring singer too.